Seeking to avoid a sweep…

Hard to believe, but this team hasn’t lost three in a row all year, a modern day Dodger record for the latest that has happened. With the way Kershaw has pitched lately, I like our chances to pull this one out, but you never know with this game. I can’t say I would have predicted that Chad wouldn’t have gotten out of the second inning last night, either.

On his 69th birthday, Joe Torre is mixing it up with the lineup, as Andre gets the night off.

You said it exactly right Tru… Honestly, I’ve stopped trying to figure out Joe’s lineups; too taxing on the brain right now to try and figure out Joe’s thinking. The only things I like about this lineup is that Matty is hitting 5th and JP is last…

I kinda figured Andre would be sitting today but not James. All I can say positive about this is that our bench is REALLY strong tonight. Nevertheless, it’s a shame that Kersh doesn’t get the full compliment of bats in the lineup that he deserves.

I’m praying to the Big Dodger in the Sky for this game as well as sending up mega-positive thoughts. Joe’s decisions make no sense at all – any time we think he’s going to do the right thing, he does the exact opposite. I’m with you, Nelly – blah!

Sparkle, I’m fine. I’ve been intentionally not posting something, because I’m afraid I’m going to jinx it. I’ve done that before, and I don’t want to jinx this one. But I’m sure you can guess, given the tone of my response. Once I hear one way or the other, I’ll let everyone here know…

And you know what TruMom? Ever since our ITD tour, my husband has asked me if I ever thought of having a screen name that mentions our beloved Dodgers. Remember when enchanted was a brown paper bag, and then many other brown bags came out? Well, I had my own pseudo screen name, but now I can’t remember it. I think it was DodgerNut, or something like that. I have to look it up. But if I revert back to DodgerNut (or whatever it was), my CP nickname won’t be in use. And I like CP! So, maybe I’ll come up with a new name, but make sure it starts with CP. I don’t know. If I do, I’m sure I’ll be very obvious; especially if it starts with CP…

Yeah TruMom, I think you’re right. At this point though, I’m tired of trying to figure out Joe’s lineups and I’m tired of thinking the worst. But there may be merits to thinking the worst. I thought the worst about MN weather before our trip (thinking it was going to be mega-humid, mega-hot) but it wasn’t anything close to that. It was more a Chamber of Commerce weekend in MN, so if I think the worst about Joe’s lineup, then maybe great things will happen!

And if you believe that, I’ve got some lake-front property in MN to sell you…

🙂 🙂
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It is really difficult to believe that the team (Joe) keeps revisiting the same situation – not playing the best, most deserving players. What has JP done since his first month as Manny’s stand-in that warrants such preference?! If Joe is not playing by the numbers, why has he again stated that he IS??!! Drawing names out of a hat to build a lineup is one thing, but this is ridiculous.

Piddle can’t even play RF so that at least you have some decent D in center. Great 4th OFer that can’t even play all three OF positions.

And why bat Loretta 6th? He ought to be battling JP for 9th. Now after Kemp you have 4 guys that can’t hit their way out of a wet paper bag.

I would think you’d want to come out of the gate after the all-star break strong and make a push to bury the rest of the division so that maybe in September you can use all the call-ups to rest your regulars before the playoffs. With Joe’s “managing”, they’ll be lucky to get to the playoffs.

Matt should not have to move over. What other position does this happen? We don’t move over a player for any position other than for JP – Unacceptable!!! Why do we have to accommodate for his inadequacies? This is just ridiculous.

I know that Torre’s gonna do what he’s gonna do with the outfield situation – that’s partly why some of us call him the idiot. Sitting down Loney because a mediocre lefty is pitching is something else again, as if it is not enough just to give up Andre’s bat. Having Loretta come up with his “edge of the outfield grass power” doesn’t exactly get me on the edge of my seat, you know what I mean. You can’t even say that he has JP’s speed where an infield bobble can at least get him to first base.

A) When facing the other teams best pitcher (Oswalt) why wouldn’t you want to start ALL of your best players, thus giving your team its best chance of beating the opposing team’s best pitcher?

B) You’ve got two embarrassing loses coming out of the all-star break, 1 run scored in 2 games… why would you rest two regulars and put in a line-up that after the 5th batter you’d be lucky to get 1 hit in 16 ABs?

C) After watching last night’s fiasco of an OF, why would you start the same LF/CF tandem?

Joe Torre IS an idiot. Piddle brings absolutely nothing to the table and hasn’t since the first 20 games after Manny’s vacation started. He can’t hit. He can’t throw. Throw in Swetta that can’t hit and can’t run… if I’m Hampton, I can’t wait to get at this line-up.

Joe loves Piddle! Piddle loves Joe! So, Piddle gets what he wants and screw everbody else! I think Joe is the one who needs some time off! I’ll bet you Enchanted, Bear, Dodgereric and even NellyJune and yours truly could put out a better lineup every night and not destroy our bullpen!

Juan Pierre sucks! I’m guessing we’ll see 2 ground outs to second and 2 pop ups to left tonight from slappy…We are stuck with him. He shouldn’t be allowed in the outfield. His weak arms cost us more runs then his weak bat can help us score.

This lineup is total BS. First Matt has to sit and now Andre. First it’s one or 2 starts a week for Pierre, which is bad enough, now it’s back to back starts. I’m already mad and the game hasn’t even started yet. If Joe would just stick to the lineup they started the season with and stop messing with it, they’d be fine.

I just read about Schmidt starting. I think we should give him a chance. His rehab numbers are mediocre, but his walks to strikeouts ratio is not bad. They can’t keep him in rehab any longer. They should pitch him, if he stinks then release him and eat the rest of his contract. They paid him most of the money already anyway. They’re not going to make a trade for another two weeks. Maybe Schmidt can regain some of his old form and give us something. I think it’s worth a shot.

Mark Loretta is becoming this year’s Mark Sweeney. Not as bad as Sweeney, but getting a lot more ABs. If you’re a vet on JoJo’s team and you happen to get off to a hot start, sucking for the next three to six months will not lead to a diminished role. Of course, Sweeney didn’t get off to a hot start and that didn’t hurt him in JoJo’s eyes, so this analysis may be all wrong
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As for Popgun, anybody here besides me miss Delwyn Young?

Why in the F*** is Kemp in right field. I just got in and got the game on. Has Torre lost his F****** mind? Sitting Andre and Loney. Doesn’t Joe want to win this thing? These are young guys, and should be able to play every game. If they played for any other team in the Majors, neither one would be sitting on the bench. Torre, you disgust me…

Vin was just saying that Torre had a meeting with Pierre to explain to him why he was batting him 9th tonight. I seriously doubt he has meetings with Andre or Matt to explain to them why they are batting in a different position are aren’t in the lineup for that matter.

I honestly know how you feel Beav, and wait until Wally and your father get home and have a chance to write about this. I am sure they are not going to be too happy about this situation.

Charlie just said Andre has been struggling lately and since it’s a left-handed pitcher, it is a good night to give him the day off. ………….and Charlie, what did JP do last night, and what has he done so far tonight, other to bounce into a double play? …………..and Charlie, what did James do to deserve the day off?

Nelly, they had another episode of Dining with Dre tonight on Dodgers Live and they showed a little clip of the yoga session. I guess he hasn’t been updating the blog since they’ve been doing some televised segments instead. The restaurant owner brought him some things to sample aside from what he ordered and brought him a smore for desert. He almost lit the marshmallow on fire, lol. I just don’t get why Joe can’t stick with their opening day lineup and stop messing around with it so much.

After Pierre’s hot 20 games after manny suspension since may 28th he’s batting .260/.311/.307. Dre since may 28th is hitting .236/.292/.518 with 12 home runs….If we are going to have a below average bat it might as well be Dre with the extra pop and the better arm.

Nelly, I don’t think it’s that he doesn’t want to stay a Dodger. I could be wrong, but I really think he likes being a Dodger and wants to stay one, but doesn’t trust the situation because like his fans, so many times when he thinks he’s finally “made it,” he gets kicked to the curb again. I really hope that he hangs in there through all of it, because I still believe it will work out for him with the Dodgers in the end and he will be one of the Dodger players whose stats they are mentioning during games years from now. It would be a shame not to be.

Thanks bluecrewgirl, and this whole issue is very disheartening. I really thought this year would be different, but no…………………back to the same old crap. It was mentioned in an article that Andre never says I want to stay a Dodger, and always referencing to the fact that he may not be here next year. If you were Andre and getting jerked around because of Juan Pierre, wouldn’t you be thinking the same way? His fans sure are!!

Evening everyone! I guess my threat earlier today to be around for today’s game seemed to work! I have been here at home watching, just finally getting to the computer. Glad to see Kersh did well! Also interested with the Schmidt news, we’ll see how things go!

Good Evening All,
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Just tuning in as I have been in and out tonight.
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I see we are up 5 – 1 in the eigth….. Shut Em Down Boy’s!!!!
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BPB has returned, always good to see ya….. even in disguise
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LETS GO DODGERS, LETS GO!!!!!

Who made the decision to put Juan in center. Oh, that’s right. I forgot, Joe’s in charge of that decision. What a loser. Juan, that is. We surely are not going to let the Astro’s back into this game are we.

They would be scoring runs off of JP in highschool ball. You would think the fundamental thing you should have to be able to do to be an outfielder is throw the frickin’ ball without O-Dog or Raffy standing right in front of you.

I thought Pierre owned Hampton so much for Torre playing the number lol Can Joe seem to do anything right? Kershaw had 103 pitches abd we would up 5-0 that look like enough runs for us if Kershaw was still pitching.

Looking forward to Schmidt pitching on Monday. The guy is a horse who has worked his a** off trying to come back. Never understood the animosity some on this blog have for him. He was a free agent who signed a big contract and got hurt. Not his fault. I’m sure he’d have rather been pitching these last 2 1/2 years than getting cut on and rehabbing endlessly through pain and doubt.

I met Schmidt at ST in ’08 and he was real nice. Signed auto’s for a long time and was chatting with everybody. At the time I asked him about his recovery/rehab and you could see in his face & his response that he missed playing and was bummin that he couldn’t pitch. At that time & since I’ve felt bad for him.
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I know many don’t feel bad for him because he has made enough change to last him for a lifetime, but I still do because I think $$$ isn’t everything. It helps but I’m sure he’d rather be pitching then doing what he’s been doing for the last few years.
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So I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s got. I think it’s a good time to see what he has to offer.
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One thing for sure is that we are in 1st but we’re really needing pitching because what we have now won’t bring the Ring to LA in 2009!

I think a healthy Schmidt and I hold no grudge since he was ex Giants could really go far for us. We just need the good Bills back the good Broxton the good Kuroda the good Kuo whenever he come back and the good Wade to come back. When this team is healthy we could be tough.

I would love nothing better than to see Jason pitch and pitch well, if no other reason than to let my family see he did come back. I really just hope the bullpen can get it’s rest tomorrow just in case they are needed for Monday….. just in case.

All I keep thinking when I think about Jason Schmidt pitching on Monday is when Mark Mulder tried to come back last season. He happened to be one of my friend’s favorite players back in his Oakland days. I remember sitting and watching the game over at her house. He struck out Jimmy Rollins, threw about about 8-10 pitches out of the strike zone, and then a pickoff move, and after that throw, he new his night,and possibly career, was done. It was very painful to watch so I am hoping and hoping that it doesn’t happen to Jason. If he can find his way back and help eat up innings, then that would be great!

It make you think would Schmidt get booed but I don’t see why he should get them and it surely wasn’t his fault Ned the fool was dumb enough to signed him to that 3 yrs deal and we did lost a pick that the Giants used to pick Alderson and someone us in the supplement picks if I remember correctly. I hate losing 2 draft picks for someone that gave us one lousy win.

Hey I hope Schmidt pitches great. Hell I hope he pitches like he did in his vintage days, but let us not forget that Ned KNEW he was injured before he signed him (so 99% of my contempt is aimed at our fearless GM), but that also means that if Ned knew, Jason did too. Kudos to Schmidt to try and battle back to pitch again, but some of the culpability is his too for signing when he knew he was injured.

Good morning IDT’ers. A great win last night. Kersh is really starting to become the great pitcher everyone thought he would be and he will only get better with the stuff he has. I wouldn’t trade this 21 year old kid for anyone in baseball with the one exception maybe being Pujols and that would be the only one.
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If Kuroda would get back to last years form and Bills get straightened out we would have a great corps of pitchers. I’m hoping Schmidt has a decent game and we can get him 8 to 10 runs for a win, that would be fantastic.
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We need to get hot before we leave to play Saint Louis and Atlanta, who always seems to have out #. I’ll be at the game on the 30th in St Louis. I hope it would be Kersh pitching that night.

I hope Joe puts his regular players out there today so we have a chance for a split of this series. I, myself, as a fan, when paying the big bucks it costs to go to a game, want to see Matt, Andre and James along with all the other regular guys. They are young and don’t need days off. I know some of you will say we won the game last night, and, we did. But, we could have scored a lot more runs with Dre and James in there. We also shouldn’t have to suffer watching PP playing….where every single becomes an automatic double because he still can’t throw the ball and e may have had a good month but has done nothing lately to warrant him playing over Andre or Matt.

Good morning everyone,
It’s good to see some of you getting behind Schmidt. He needs our support. If he can come back and be somewhat reliable, that can be a big boost to the pitching staff. Almost like getting a pitcher from a trade. I know it is not going to be the same as adding a Haladay, but he can help.

Hopefully now that PP has had his two starts, showing his usual Pissle form, the lineup will return to normal today. Kuroda needs all the offensive help he can get, and like someone stated above the fans need to get their money’s worth on the field. Not worried about Manny yet – some fans need to remember that he’s just a guy, not Superman, and he’ll go 0 for 4 sometimes. After all, presumably he’s no longer taking steroids.

What a performance by Kershaw. In his last 7 games he has pitched 42 2/3 innings and has given a total of 21 hits and 3 runs. I think we are going to have the best pitcher in all of baseball. Don’t trade this kid for anybody.

…oh, but you are all forgetting that Raffy usually has the day off on a day game after a night game. Therefore, leaving the lead off position open for PP for the day. Russell is actually swinging the bat now, but usually Ausmus catches on days like today too. So, don’t assume all will be well with the lineup today.

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